COVID-19, livestock supply chains and livelihoods in India: a review of impacts and implications

Purpose - The global outbreak of COVID-19 and its subsequent varied impacts on different economic activities necessitate to examine its disruptions and impacts on livestock sector in India due to its recently surging potential as an unrivaled alternative to boost farmer’s income. Design/methodology/approach - The studies for review were identified through search in different databases using relevant keywords. Only full text papers written in English language were reviewed. The review was organized and streamlined using Covidence software. Findings - Analysis of the literature reveals adverse effects of COVID-19 on functioning of input and output stages of livestock supply chains. This has resulted in upstream and downstream economic losses that affect livelihoods of the producers. Research limitations/implications - Scale of unprecedented crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic requires creative policy decisions to make livestock production systems robust, resilient and sustainable. Organized production systems are required to integrate with livestock-tech startups to modernize their supply chains, whereas local supply chains are required to reorient with government’s intervention in terms of developing on-farm production and postproduction processing facilities. Originality/value - Although there exist some evidence on COVID-19-related impacts on livestock sector of India, but an integrated review of evidence on COVID-19 related disruptions at all the stages (from input supply to marketing) of livestock supply chains was missing.